"What do you mean?" Jason demanded, panting to catch his breath. "Flint, what just happened? Where are we?"

  "Kansas," Flint jested as he motioned to the surrounding trees.

  Jason spun, trying to orient himself.

  Flint took the moment of silence to also look around. The dirt smelled of clay and ash.

  Flint wiggled his toes; the tan, dusty soil felt dry on his wet, smarting feet. Looking down, Flint noticed they were standing in another ring of symbols identical to the one they had been standing in before.

  Looking up, an overcast of grey mist skimmed the treetops and quickly faded, exposing the sky still bright with daylight. Flint couldn't help but grin. Hanging in the sky was a bright white moon, twin blue moons, and a tiny red one at the furthest distance.

  He had done it. He wasn't entirely sure how, but here he was, on Ash.

  "Flint …" Jason cried as he looked up at the sky. "What did you do?"

  "I made it," Flint beamed. “We're here, which means Dad's here, too."

  "What?" Jason cried. "Flint, what are you talking about? What happened?"

  "You don't have to shout, Jason." Flint scolded. "I knew something like this would happen, but I wasn't sure how exactly."

  "What are you talking about?"

  Flint laughed victoriously. "We aren't on Earth."

  Jason looked at Flint, flabbergasted. "Not on Earth?" He spun around, taking in the scenario one more time. "But how? Where are we? New Jericho? Second or third Jericho? Was I drugged? That's not possible. We were in the woods by my cabin only seconds ago. You can't travel to another planet in a moment."

  "Yet here we are," Flint sighed.

  Jason stared at Flint with fear-stricken eyes. "You're crazy!"

  Flint frowned. "Then how do you explain this?" He asked, making a sweeping gesture and motioning to everything.

  "Great!" Jason threw his hands in the air, ignoring Flint's challenge. "I'm stuck with my insane little brother. We are hopelessly lost, and now I'm seeing things. Where are those officers? Why were they after you? What did you do to me?"

  He clawed at his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Mark!" He said, "Give me directions home."

  The phone was silent momentarily before the virtual helper's voice sounded. "I'm sorry, there is no connection; try waiting for a better signal."

  The lack of internet carried weight if the other facts didn't persuade Jason. "It's not possible."

  Flint snorted and picked up the gun where Jason had dropped it. Being in the ring of runes, the weapon had made the trip with them.

  "Officers!" Jason bellowed, cupping his hands to his mouth. "Officers, help!"

  "Jason, why don't you try shouting louder? I'm sure getting your voice to cross billions of light-years is a matter of effort." Flint snapped as he pulled the cone-shaped jumpstarter out of the ground in the circle's center. Its runes no longer glowed. "Randy and Andrew aren't cops. They're not social workers; they're Jericho agents."

  "Jericho?" Jason stammered, "So this is really—"

  "A different planet, yes. I used this to get us here." Flint hoisted the cone before slipping it into his backpack. "I borrowed it from one of Dad's pods."

  "I don't think the word 'borrowed' means what you think it does," Jason said. His face folded in anger. "Okay, I don't care where we are, but you're going to send us back right now," Jason commanded.

  "Can't," Flint said as he shouldered his backpack. "I'd need another piece of light ice."

  "What?" Jason said blankly.

  "You are really an idiot, Jason. Why did you have to come?"

  "Why did I come?" Jason shouted. "Do you mean, why did I stop my stupid little brother from getting shot by the police?"

  Flint rolled his eyes and picked up his shoes.

  "Where do you think you're going?" Jason demanded.

  "To find Dad and some more light ice."

  "Flint, stop! Aren't you going to explain anything? It's your fault we're here."

  Flint dropped his pack and spun back to face Jason, looking up at him so he could see his older brother's eyes from under the brim of his black hat. "I'll answer that only after I hear three little words."

  "What words?" Jason demanded.

  "Hmm," Flint mused. "Maybe ‘I am sorry?’ Or, possibly, ‘you were right.’ Either will do."

  Jason regarded Flint, his temples bulging, and then he shoved him.

  Flint cried out as he staggered to the ground.

  "Are you serious?” Jason barked, towering over his brother. “We are hopelessly lost and out here on our own, and all you care about is your stupid pride?"

  Flint scampered to his feet, his face a mask of controlled defiance. "You called me crazy and told me I was wrong without hearing me out! Who's the one with stupid pride?"

  "Oh wow, nothing is ever your fault, is it?" Jason demanded.

  Flint let out a harsh bark of laughter. "This one is completely your fault."

  "What?" Jason cried. "You show up at my doorstep, practically on my honeymoon, and drag me out into the woods, and now I'm stuck here wherever here is, and it's somehow my fault?"

  "Hey!" Flint barked at his older brother defensively. "I gave you the option to come. It was you who sold me out. You followed me out here, and you chose not to put any merit into what I said. Yes, it's my fault that I'm here, but you're being here also? That's completely on you."

  Jason fumed, momentarily at a loss for words. "You were always really annoying as a kid. It's nice to see that nothing has changed."

  Flint couldn't help smiling sourly. "Is that all you got?" he mocked. "I'm annoying? I'll give that to you, but at least I didn't abandon the others."

  "What did you want me to do, Flint?” Jason demanded. “Take care of four kids? I was barely eighteen, and Dad would have hunted me down in a minute! At least I’m not like you, pretending that Dad’s some sort of hero. He’s a monster, Flint. Mom, too.”

  “People respect our family’s name,” Flint hissed.

  “Mom crippled Carly, Flint,” Jason’s voice trembled with rage.

  “She hurt all of us, Jason, but at least I stayed behind to endure it with them! I actually cared about the others.”

  “Which is it, Flint? Are Mom and Dad your heroes, or did they abuse you? They can’t be both, or is your Stockholm syndrome so dense you cant see that?”

  “This isn’t about me!” Flint snapped. “This is about you abandoning us!”

  Jason scoffed. “So you didn’t want me to save you? You’re just pissed I didn’t suffer with you? Well, I couldn’t. Not after my tour with Dad.”

  Flint ground his teeth. “And after your tour with Dad, he stopped training the rest of us.”

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  Jason snorted. “You’re welcome.” He scanned their surroundings. Jason took a few grounding breaths. “This is insane. There’s no way this is real. We can’t be on another planet,” he told himself, slipping back into denial.

  Flint frowned. "Don't you see we can't just walk back the way we came?"

  "It's a trick," Jason insisted. "It has to be."

  "Jason," Flint said. "Let's pull this band-aid off. I am absolutely sure that we are not on Earth."

  Jason rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What else did your conspiracy theories tell you? Should we wear tinfoil hats, or will the government plant subliminal messages directly into our brains? Oh, wait. Apparently, you don't have one!"

  Flint picked up his backpack and put it on again. "Jason, Let me know when you're ready for answers."

  Jason huffed in distaste and turned away, reasoning to himself under his breath.

  Flint turned away from Jason, suddenly considering the noise they made. He frowned when he realized just how quiet the day was. Where was the wind? The animals? The chirp of insects?

  The unnatural silence made the hair on the back of his neck stand. What was wrong with this place? Were the strange trees the only living thing in the area?

  Finally, Flint's survival instincts kicked in. He scanned the surrounding area for any sign of life.

  Sun-baked cracks spider-webbed the caramel-tan soil like a dried river bed. Flint counted at least half a dozen inconsistently placed mounds in the clay. Each bump rose about ten inches off the ground with short offshoots, indicating the presence of burrowing rodents. Maybe Flint could snare some food.

  Not seeing anything that he could consider a danger, he took the chance to examine his foot. He produced a plastic water bottle from his pack and washed it before binding it with bandages from his first-aid kit. A quarter-sized wound wept blood, punctured while he ran. Flint would probably super glue it after he found a reasonable campsite, but for now, he slapped a simple bandage on.

  He gingerly slipped his shoes and socks over his bloody foot as he eyed the trees around, ever vigilant.

  In the distance, a shaft of yellow light lashed down to earth like lightning, but a straight beam instead of the twisted fork of electricity. A crack sounded eight seconds later. Nearly two miles away, Flint noted.

  Seeing no droppings or tracks of any kind in the baked clay dirt, he was satisfied that they were, in fact, alone.

  Flint needed a plan. First, he would find high ground to get his bearings. Then, he would find shelter, food, and water. This would have been easier if he had been alone, but he had to account for Jason.

  Flint would need to find this jump point again. He noted two nearby trees growing together practically from the same base. One of the trunks twisted oddly, making a distinct landmark.

  Flint collected four stones and stacked them, creating a marker.

  Just as Flint finished making the cairn, Jason approached again, breathing heavily and with beads of sweat gathering on his forehead.

  "Okay. Suppose we are really … Wherever we are. We're going to have to be open with each other."

  "I'm going to need you to stop treating me like a kid," Flint said.

  Jason looked up at him for a moment. "Fine," Jason said. "How do we go home?"

  Flint sat back and pulled his backpack close. "We find light ice. It looks like glowing amber. It will fuel my jumpstarter, and we can reignite any established jump point."

  Jason stared at Flint dumbly. "I don't understand anything you just said. What happened? Why are we here?"

  With a sigh, Flint reached into his backpack and produced his tablet.

  "After Mom was arrested, I ran off," Flint explained. "I looked for Dad because I had nowhere else to go. I figured if I found him, we could—" Flint stopped, glancing away from Jason.

  "Anyway, I've been following him, tracking his contacts and storage units. I found a lead with one of his computers. His current contract."

  Jason visibly tensed at the mention of a contract.

  "I couldn’t access the file, but his emails discussed it. They were full of technical lingo, so I didn't understand much. But one word that kept coming up that seemed to be important. Ash."

  "As in, grey fire dust?"

  "I don't think so. It seems to be a code word for a location."

  "What location?"

  "I wasn't completely sure until we came here," Flint said. "I think this place, this planet, is Ash."

  "We're on a different planet," Jason said, finally dragging down the walls of disbelief. "That would explain Jericho."

  "Exactly. With the discovery of Ash, both Jericho and Manticore Inc. have been scrambling for control. Especially because this planet is inhabitable. The other planets Jericho has colonized are dead; the residents live under Jericho domes. Which makes an inhabitable planet—"

  "Ideal," Jason said.

  "Well, cheap to run." Flint specified. "It's incredibly expensive for Jericho to keep their domes operational."

  "So Dad's working for Jericho?"

  "No," Flint clarified. "Like mom, he's working for Manticore Inc."

  "But … How did we get here?" Jason asked.

  Two distant pillars of yellow light cracked down. Jason saw them, too. Flint counted to fifteen before he heard their sharp crack. They were three miles away.

  "What was that?" Jason asked.

  "I think I know," Flint said. "I could be wrong, though."

  "Well?"

  "You know the people who started to disappear?"

  "Yeah."

  "I think they come here. Or are pulled here."

  "Pulled here?" Jason repeated. "Why, how?"

  "I don't know!" Flint said. "Those details are in the contract itself, but I got locked out. I was hoping you might be able to help me open it. I’m not good with computers.”

  Jason snorted. "I do information technology; I’m not a hacker.”

  “At least look at it?” Flint pleaded.

  “Fine,” Jason agreed, “But how do we get home?”

  Flint hefted the cone. "We used the jumpstarter; that's what this thing is labeled in the instructions pictures," Flint said, patting his backpack. "I used the jumpstarter on the old jump point, with a little light ice, and wham," Flint clapped his hands together for emphasis. "We're here!"

  "So you can get us back?"

  Flint sighed, found a stick, and dug a shallow arrow into the clay-like dirt, pointing at the circle of runes they had arrived at. "If I can find some ice, and we can return to this exact circle, it should dump us back in your backyard. I made a marker. Any other jump point will probably get us back to Earth, but as far as I can tell, each point on Ash has a single twin back on Earth. I can't create new jump points but can reactivate old ones."

  "You know what I don't get?" Jason asked.

  "What?"

  "How could someone who sounds as ridiculous as you figure this out on their own?"

  Flint grinned. "I may be young, but I'm not lazy or stupid. Well, maybe stupid, sometimes."

  Jason shook his head, appraising Flint. He had missed a fair chunk of his brother’s life, so how could he claim to know him? Jason seemed to consider something else and furrowed his brow.

  "Flint, I need to get back to Rachel! We shouldn't be here."

  Flint stepped away from the agitated man. "Look, I know this is probably the last place you want to be, but getting back will be easy."

  "You have some of that light ice you were talking about?" Jason asked.

  "Well, no," Flint confessed. "But I have the next best thing."

  "What's that?" Jason asked.

  "A map of Ash." Flint smiled.

  "You can read a map?" Jason asked doubtfully.

  "Please," Flint dismissed. "A map is a picture, right?"

  "I guess so."

  "Once we find a major landmark, this map will lead us to Dad."

  Jason paled at the mention of their father. "Flint," he said, "I don't want to go to Dad. I ran away from him."

  Flint scowled at his older brother. "If anyone can get us home, it's him."

  "Flint, he'll actually kill me. As in literally murder me."

  "I doubt that," Flint said. "Dad has always been a very tribal person; he won't kill one of his own. Plus, if I could find you, he would have found you much faster, and you would have died a long time ago if that's what he wanted."

  Flint spoke confidently, but truthfully, he was just as anxious as Jason. He had been so concerned about finding his dad that he had no real plan to return or deal with the potential threats lurking here.

  "So there are other people here?" Jason said.

  Flint nodded. "Manticore and Jericho agents, but light ice is scarce, so there won't be many of them. There will probably be plenty of others, the people who have been disappearing."

  Jason nodded, "So we just need to find Dad and get home."

  "You're missing a step," Flint said.

  "What?"

  "You remember what Randy said before we jumped? Get as much light ice as we can carry. I think it comes from Ash. So we load up on light ice and become so disgustingly rich we won't have to worry about anything again when we return." Flint said with a shade of hunger gleaming in his eye.

  "Is that really why you're here?" Jason asked. "You're chasing treasure?"

  "It's in my blood," Flint huffed. "Dad's a soldier of fortune, and so am I."

  "You're a child."

  Flint stuck his nose proudly in the air. "I'm sorry you're not like us, but when I'm fifteen and retired, you won't think it's as stupid."

  "Wow," Jason marveled. "I legitimately don't think I've met a living person as greedy as you. What about other things? What about happiness?"

  "Spoken like a true poor person." Flint snickered. "You may have run from the family business, but I run towards it."

  "Flint," Jason said sadly. "You're so young. It makes me sad to see you like this."

  "And here he goes again," Flint muttered. "Pretending like he cared this whole time."

  Something strange, like a guttural shriek, cried out in the distance, and both brothers spun in alarm. The sting of Flint's foot reminded him of the ever-present wound.

  "Do you think this place is inhabited?" Jason asked as he glanced around nervously.

  "I already explained —"

  "Yes, I know there are other people. But this place is inhabitable; you don't think there are locals, do you?"

  "Aliens. Really?" Flint cringed. "How old are you?"

  "If we're on an alien planet with breathable air and plants, why wouldn't there be locals?"

  "I guess that makes us the aliens. There may be strange animals and predators, but I wouldn't expect Martians or UFOs."

  "We should keep our heads down and our eyes open," Jason decided. "We need to get our bearings and make a plan. Do you have any food?"

  Flint nodded. "My rations would have lasted me about a week, half that with both of us. We need to find out if there is edible food here and shelter. I have no idea how fast the days are here. So nightfall may surprise us."

  Jason nodded. "And then we find Dad." He didn't seem very pleased with the last part.

  Flint nodded.

  "Let's get back as soon as possible," Jason said. “Maybe this place is small. Perhaps we can find him and be home today."

  "We'll try," Flint promised, though he didn't feel Jason's hopes were realistic. "Help me find Dad, and we'll all go back together."

  He pulled open the map of Ash on his tablet and consulted it for a second. "Don't worry, Jason, as long as we are true to this map, we'll be just fine—"

  A fist-sized stone cut Flint off as it smashed into the tablet, knocking it out of his hand and shattering it into pieces.

  "Ahhh!"

  Both brothers jumped back in surprise as a victorious wail sounded behind them.

  The brothers spun to five men grinning viciously down at them from behind an embankment of clay-like dirt. Their tattered clothes and aged, thick beards indicated they had been in the wilderness for a while. Their yellow hair and frizzled beards stood on end like they had stuck a knife in the outlet. Each of them brandished a club or a big knife in their filthy hands. Their leader carried a now empty braided sling. They wore the smiles of carnivorous cats before birds with broken wings.

  "Not friendlies!" Jason cried. "Flint. Get your gun!"

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